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Mass. courts looking to enhance accessibility and efficiencies

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
10/19/2013 06:34:47 AM EDT

By Andy Metzger

State House News Service

BOSTON -- Emerging from years of want and reduced staffing that shuttered clerks' offices to the public for hours during the day, the Massachusetts court system is pushing to make the courts more easily accessible, top court leaders said Wednesday.

"It is the Judicial Branch that is charged with protecting the rights of the people of the commonwealth," Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland told attorneys gathered in the Adams Courthouse. "It is the courts where all of us, including those most vulnerable, go to secure safety, welfare and liberty. We need to do all we can to inform the public of the important role of the courts."

Ireland heads into his final year as a judge with judicial pay raises written into the state budget, the clerk's offices open for the full day and plans to add an informational center to a Boston courthouse.

The Massachusetts Bar Association, which hosts the annual symposium at the appeals court, is planning to push for a "unified" court combining district, superior, juvenile, land, housing, probate and family and the Boston Municipal Court into one department, allowing judges to hear a greater diversity of cases and saving administration costs.

Meanwhile, Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey, who told the News Service she is not planning for such a consolidation, said the immediate future should bring a new statewide method for police to submit criminal complaints electronically, as well as new specialized sessions for drug offenses, people with mental health issues and veterans.

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"We're looking to hopefully expand our drug court presence to at least five additional drug courts next year. We also have mental-health courts; we're looking to expand those as well, but key to that is ensuring that our staff is appropriately trained to be able to handle folks that have substance abuse issues or mental health issues," Carey told reporters, saying the location of the new drug courts is still being decided.

The Brooke Courthouse in downtown Boston and the Greenfield court will soon be home to new "court service centers," Ireland told the assembled lawyers.

"We'll help folks fill out forms, give them referrals. Sometimes people come to the courts, and they really don't need the courts; they need a social service agency, so our folks are going to be able to refer them," said Carey, who said the homeless shelter Rosie's Place will help fund the Boston service center.

The courts are also hoping to add more information for the public on their websites, and hoping that a pilot program for e-filing police complaints in South Boston will be able to expand throughout the state.

"We expect once that rolls out, we get the kinks out, we're going to be able to have electronic filings from just about every police department in the commonwealth," said Carey.

Ireland, who will reach the statutory age limit of 70 in December 2014, argued forcefully for judicial pay raises during the legislative budget process and said Wednesday that court officials "communicated frequently and frankly" with lawmakers on the issue.

A member of the SJC for 17 years who was appointed chief justice by Gov. Deval Patrick, Ireland told the News Service he would not presume to offer suggestions for the selection of his replacement and said he has not determined his plans for after he steps down.

Court Administrator Harry Spence told a legislative committee Wednesday that the judiciary would need to close some of its 101 courts, and that it should create new regional justice centers like one under development in Greenfield.

"They have been on the cutting edge, frankly, for 20 years," Carey said of the court in the north-western part of the state. "They have been wanting to do court services centers and do things like cross-training of staff."

MBA General Counsel Martin Healy said the Trial Court should consolidate its seven court departments into one.

"You would eliminate seven separate bureaucracies, seven administrative structures," Healy told the News Service. He said, "The pay increase boosted morale, but I think you're going to get an influx of retirements, and as a result a number of new appointments to the bench, and I think a number of these new judges will be interested in working in an innovative system where they're allowed to sit on a number of different types of cases in different sessions, and not being confined to one limited jurisdiction."

Healy said the MBA was the only bar association to support the court reform that created the court administrator position, and said New Hampshire and Connecticut have consolidated their courts.

"The resistance that comes with unification is usually from entrenched interests," Healy said. He said, "It's a discussion that we're implementing this year; we're going to make a big push for it."

Carey, who took her post this summer, spoke of a unified mission of the courts.

"We're the safe haven, the place society turns to when they have nowhere else to go," Carey told the gathered attorneys. She said, "We are one court, one court united. And we have one mission, and that is justice, with dignity and speed."

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